The Jewish World Condemned

Well, good morning. Nice to see you here. Actually, it's nice to see more people are joining us here. Great. Okay. Well, we're continuing on in chapter two. So we're actually going to start in a new section. You know, Paul's been spending time talking about the Gentile world. He's going to move into the Jewish world now.

So this is titled the Jewish world condemned. So this outline is kind of a combination of different people, a little bit of Macaulay, a little bit of my Bible, a little bit of other places, but hopefully it gets the point across. So we talked about this condemnation of mankind, these 118 through 320. So Paul started off, we've talked back in verse chapter 1, he talked about condemning the immoral man, so-called. Then the last several weeks, we've talked about the condemnation of the moral man. I want to go back a little bit today, one chart of review of that, talking about the conscience. That's such a great topic last week, and I want to just kind of review some points about that, about man's conscience, which is pretty amazing what God has done for man.

Actually, He holds man accountable for that, as best I can tell. And then today, we're going to look at kind of three Actually, the Jewish world condemned three points, his possessions, and you might say his possessions that he has squandered or he hasn't done well. The Jew has not done well, as most of mankind has not done well, of the information God has provided to him, either through nature or through his conscience or when it was shown through the law. So the Jew, through his possessions, his confidence in God, He wound up dishonoring God, that very last verse in 24. And then next week, we're going to get into circumcision. Mike's going to cover that and more condemnation. And then finally, the whole world will be condemned in chapter 3, 19 through 20.

So Paul's making his case that none can stand before God and say that he can merit his own favor. So let's go back and look last week at this idea that the Gentiles Specifically the moral man who thinks he's pretty good. He thinks he understands about God So this being a law unto themselves or the verse that actually I want to kind of highlight here is the verse verse 15 They show the works of the law written in your hearts So what's that all about?

That's just such an intriguing thing I I thought I didn't do as much as I could have done that so I'm going to repeat just one chart from last week this is from from Newell. So let's start off here. So in 14, Newell says, God here in verses 14 through 16 declares that there is a righteous work. That's a work of this writing.

It's a work of the law being written in your heart. So you just use the abbreviation the work or work divinely written and maintain in all men's hearts and women, which they cannot escape because their conscience agrees with it. That's the inner working of this law. So God has placed part of himself, his divine law has been placed in man. I don't believe it's not the entire law, but it's enough to hold man accountable, if you will. So this work is evidently what lies at the root of human conscience.

The law of Moses has never been written in the hearts of the Gentiles. The only place you find that is in the Millennial Kingdom where he's going to write it on the hearts of the Jews. This divine work, this writing in men's heart, is present in all men. The moral and spiritual constitution of that came at creation, basically, 2,500 years ago, before the Law of Moses.

The latter, the Law of Moses, Could only be the written expression of the work which he's written in their hearts So he's saying here was pretty cool. Is that that God gave every man? Kind of a snapshot or a picture the work of the law written in his heart and you think about that Even from our childhood we all even before we came to know Christ We have a sense and everyone has a sense of right and wrong.

You don't have to be told that That doesn't mean you don't do wrong. It just means that you know, you know, you're doing wrong. I mean, it's it's There are some people their conscience with their seared have been that's happened But in general most men and women know what's right and wrong and so that's what that's what Paul's talking about here So that's a really cool part because we've had the the revelation that from creation now we have the revelation of man's conscience and now Paul's gonna take the next step and say you know this my wonderful chosen people that I called out who I gave my law and they have a problem too. He's going to show how they're condemned as well.

Okay, so let's go on here. So these are today's verses. So they kind of separate into a couple of sections. 17 through 20 is kind of the possession and confidence of the Jew. And then we have 21 through 23 is Paul's kind of, he's sort of like a lawyer.

He's saying well, what about this and what about that and what about this and he really just he nails him every time, you know Do you steal do you commit adultery? He has a very pointed and then the bottom line the sad bottom line as Jim points out That the name of God is blaspheme among the Gentiles because of you pretty pretty sad testimony OK, so let's get into it here.

So first, we're going to start off with a little bit of grammar, or I don't know, Greek grammar. Anyway, a conditional sentence in Greek is used quite a bit. And you have a situation where you have, if this happens, then that will happen. And so this entire section, 17 to 24, is one big conditional sentence. But it's kind of an unusual one, at least to my understanding. So I'm going to give you an example of that before we actually look at the verses themselves. So here's a simple example.

If John loves Mary, and if he buys her a ring, then he will ask her to marry him. So what's unusual here is not that it's kind of a, you know, I made that up. But it's just that the fact that there's usually there's only one piece of information in the if statement in this case We kind of have an and that connects two pieces of information So you have if John loves Mary and he buys her a ring then you have the conclusion So now let's translate that to our verse versus Okay, so using this this is from a brother Hal Malloy from 2006 So he talks about but if This is your possession.

So this is the possession of the Jews, their talk. We're God's children, we obey the law, we're Abraham's offspring, and so on. And then, the other part of that is, here's their walk. We do this, and we do that. Actually, what's bad is, it gets into the fact that they lie, and they steal, they do that. So they have their talk, and their walk, and the conclusion of that is, Verse 24, the name of God is blaspheme among the Gentiles. So we're going to go through each of these little bubbles here and explain those parts of it.

But we have the walk of the professing Jew, and we have the talk and the walk. And we hear often, your walk should match your talk. Well, the Jews, that didn't happen. That's no great news, and many times it may not be true of us, which is sad as well. OK, the Jew's profession, your talk.

So I'm just going to go through these first set of verses here. But if you bear the name Jew, and this could be called their possession. I kind of subdivided their profession into their possession and their confession. OK, but if you bear the name Jew, and rely upon the law, and boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law and now here's her confidence and are confident in that you are a guide to the blind a light to those who are in darkness a corrector of foolish foolish a teacher of the immature having the law having in the law the embodiment of the knowledge of the truth you know if you look at that that's just a wonderful that's a wonderful thing You know, this is God's wonderful plan for the Jew. This is what he wants them to be. That they rely upon the law. They boast in God. They're a light to the blind. They're a guide. All these wonderful things.

But the Jew, because he never actually accepted God, he falls short of all these. So let's look at... So before we do that, let's just look at the The name Jew, he says the name Jew. Let's look at other titles for Jew, and you know these well. So this is from, I think, Trench.

The Jew has three titles. He can be called a Hebrew, a Jew, and Israelite. So first of all, the Hebrew distinguishes the fact that he is a Hebrew-speaking Jew to be set apart from a Greek-speaking one. Second, Second, to distinguish the Jew from the Gentile, we have the word Jew. That's his nationality. He's Jewish. And thirdly, Israelite.

And this talks about the fact that he's God's promised person or promised race. He came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's a member of this theocracy that God created. And he's an heir of promise. All those names have significance in terms of identifying the Jew. Okay, so let's go on down to more detail here. You bear the name Jew. And just to kind of close this out, this is that conditional statement, if then, is assumed to be true. But if, assumed to be true, you bear the name Jew, and you do, On the positive side, they're my chosen people, they're the apple of my eye.

You can find scriptures that support that. But also you'll find that the Jews, especially in the time of Christ, were always after Christ. They always were in his face, so to speak. They persecuted him for healing on the Sabbath. He said, can't good be done on the Sabbath? But the Jews were so focused on doing the letter of the law, they missed what Christ was about. So the Jews' confidence was in their heritage and not in the God that gave him his heritage.

And you know, Vani and I watched this series, if you're on YouTube, which everybody can be on YouTube, on your phone, any place these days, Come across this ministry from Israel called One for Israel. I've mentioned this a couple times. I'm not actually connected with them. I've mentioned it too many times probably.

But anyway, what's cool about this, these are Jewish men and women that have come to know Christ as their Savior. And it's just so refreshing. And they're not wrapped up in the heritage of being a Jew in Israel. They're wrapped up in knowing Christ and excited about telling others about Christ. It's just the opposite of what's happening here, that they bear the name Jew. And they see that they're God's chosen people, these people on one for Israel, and that God chose them, and that the New Testament is a Jewish book. This is a book about my Messiah. And they get so excited about that. And it's just really neat. So in studying this, I kind of thought back about those series we watch with them.

Okay, and rely upon the law, and the Weiss translation brings us across, and have a blind and mechanical reliance upon the law. Think about the Jew. I've forgotten, is it the Mishnah? That they wrap around the law, they don't want to violate the law, so they wrap around the law, other laws, so that they violate, if they miss those laws, which aren't God's laws, they won't violate God's laws. So they just go beyond reason, right? And we've heard that many times.

Okay, so the Jew thought he could please God by being acceptable to God by his own righteousness, but if he kept the tenets of the law. And boasting God, the Jew was honoring God with his lips, but his heart was far from him. Their worship or reverence was in vain, empty, with no purpose in the sight of God.

And several of these I've gotten from my brother Hal, as you'll see it with the asterisks. Okay, so let's go on. Verse 18, and know his will, and it's actually the will, and know the will. So what actually people have kind of observed is that later on, Mike's going to cover this, probably not next week, but the following week.

In chapter 3, the Jews receive the oracles of God. And those oracles, it seems like this may be speaking of that rather than his will, his word contains his will. So this could be speaking of the fact that they know his word, or know his will. They were proud of his will or word.

And again, the idea of they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They speak these wonderful words, like, I don't know if you watch the, and maybe I should be a little bit careful here, but if you watch royalty these days, and you watch some of their services, and they go through all these wonderful scriptures, and I just, I don't know, I hope they know the Lord, I'm not sure, but anyway, They have wonderful scriptures, and the Jews had a wonderful message to tell, but their heart was far from the Lord. And approve the things that are essential or better, being instructed out of the law. Approve here is this word which we're studying in Documento, is to test with a view to approval.

But this is man's testing, not God's testing. They had a head knowledge of the law, but again, their heart was far from me. The Jews had the most light, but still rejected Christ as their Messiah. Just think of the Jew. We just went through this, right? We've gone through the natural revelation. The Jew had natural revelation, nature. He had his conscience, like we just talked about. And now he has the law, and he has the oracles of God. With all that information, he still missed the Savior.

Verse 19, And are confident that you That you yourself are and this is the confidence part To persuade yourself and this is the perfect tense. It means that they were confident. They weren't just confident in a point in time They were confident in the past in the past and continue to be confident into the present and actually on into the future But they were confident in themselves not in God, which is sad a guide to the blind They were blind themselves in this verse that we all probably have heard of. Let them, the Pharisees alone, this is Christ speaking, they are blind guides to the blind. If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. I think about today's world. A lot of blind guides out there. A lot of blind guides.

A light to those who are in darkness. Look at the wonderful things that God called them to. The Jews were to be a light to the Gentiles and here's a verse that this is was God's purpose for the Jewish nation Isaiah 42 6 I am the Lord I've called you in righteousness, and I will appoint you to be a light to the nations They didn't do that But in their lives they did not reflect the true God they reflected their their heritage their Jewishness if you will Okay, verse 20 a corrector of the foolish a Instructing and correcting via legalism, by crossing all the dots and the Ts, they did not gain God's favor by doing that. Apart from the cross, and we learned that back in Corinthians several years ago now, all that is foolishness.

A teacher to the immature, this actually is to infants, and the infants here I think is speaking more of the fact that these are people that are non-Jewish. They didn't have the law. They didn't have this revelation. So they are a teacher to the immature.

And what's interesting is we saw this in various places as we study. You'll see that there are people around the Jews that realized that they knew the true God. Even though the Jews did a bad job, they realized they knew the true God. And they actually, I think, were converted early on. Gentiles were converted. Having in the law the embodiment or the form of knowledge of the truth. Having in the law the outward form of knowledge, the truth.

That was the facade, like the exterior of a building. That's all it was, not the internal part that you would want them to have. OK, so now we've gone through their talk. Now here's their walk. or how they conduct their lives. He treats it like a courtroom. He's going to start asking questions.

And I've forgotten, there was some kind of series on TV or somewhere where, I'm going to ask you questions now. There was some series, I can't think of it. I was going to try to think of it as a side here. But where he says, now I'm going to ask you questions. Well, Paul's going to ask him questions now, is the idea here. OK.

I'm going to read through it again, then we'll go on to examining the questions. here's our additional information for the if statement and if you therefore who teach another do you teach yourself you who preach I'm sorry you who preach that one shall not steal do you steal you who say that one should not commit adultery do you commit adultery you abhor idols do you rob idol temples you who boast God and you do okay so now I want to kind of take those and flip those around and kind of make statements charges and we'll look for each of the charges you're not so basically they were not learning they're teaching they're teaching God's you know quote God's Word or God's laws they're teaching these you know the what God gave them but they're not learning from them they're not taking them in and many times we say the teacher learns the most well the Jews weren't in that school they didn't learn the most Hopefully you learn the most when you teach. The one who teaches another, always learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth. You can be learning and teaching, but do you take it in? Do you believe it? Do you believe what you teach?

Hopefully we do. You are stealing. And here's an interesting thing. And I had not realized this before. Constable kind of brings this forth. He points out that the Jews, apparently, would steal things from the idol temples. And I had not realized that before.

And actually there's a commandment Deuteronomy 7.25 talks about. There's a specific commandment that says don't take the booty. Don't do that.

But of course the Jews apparently did that. And there's a verse that actually we're going to see later that kind of points that out. They apparently would rob things from the idol temples. You're committing adultery. The one teaching others to not commit adultery was himself an adulterer. And there's a passage that really kind of speaks to the fact of that.

It's with the Lord with the woman caught in adultery. But actually it says more in my mind about the Pharisees and the Sadducees than it does about the woman. The woman, she, the Lord interacted with her and she, you know, apparently that was a big change in her life. It was wonderful. So here's the passage, just a little snippet.

They, the scribes and the Pharisees, said to him, Christ, Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery in the very act. If you read the rest of that passage, you know, Christ starts writing in the sand, and of course, you know, you can read commentary after commentary about what he wrote in the sand, but what's interesting is, whatever he wrote, they didn't like it, because they all left, and the Lord says to the woman, he says, where are your accusers? And he tells her, don't sin no more. So whatever he wrote, he wrote So it appears that it fits this thing.

They committed adultery. It wasn't unusual, apparently, which is pretty sad. Let's go on. You were robbing temples. Now we're back to the same thing I mentioned before. The one teaching others was himself taking treasures from the Temple of Idols. And here's a passage that most people point to. I found this in several references. This is where Paul, he goes to Ephesus.

And as usual, when Paul starts preaching the word, Peace breaks out, right? No. A riot. There's a big riot. And they're afraid Paul's going to be in. They tell Paul, don't go in there. They'll take you. So basically, I've forgotten who actually said this, but anyway. Someone makes a statement about Paul, and it's actually kind of insightful because it's going to point out that he is a different kind of person. So here's the statement.

For you have brought these men, Paul and the others, here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our God. So Paul's testimony and his associates was really interesting. Their testimony was they didn't rob temples. And they didn't actually blaspheme the pagan gods. They just told them about Christ, which I thought was kind of interesting.

So the point is here that robbing temples was apparently more common than you might think. And basically, it was not uncommon, Constable points out, it was not uncommon for the Jews to rob temples. of the Gentiles. You're dishonoring God? Paul is saying that the unbelieving, boastful, and prideful Jew was disgracing God.

Okay, so here's kind of a summary of the charges again. Actually, the first three points are just about the fact that we completed the if part, so the next part of this verse, verse 24, is going to be the conclusion, the then statement. And if you look at the verbs and all these charges, they're all present. They're all present, active, indicative, and kind of converting that into just a sentence thing. There's continuous action in the present, and the people who were doing it was the Jews, and it's reality. They were really doing this.

So Paul was not making an accusation, but stating a question that must be answered. And I think that's the procedure, if you don't I haven't watched Perry Mason recently on TV, but in all those trial situations, you know where they say so and so. Don't they ask the person, you have to answer the question. If you don't, you have to take the fifth or something like that. You have to answer the question.

So Paul is asking the Jews here, here are my questions. You got to answer these questions. The religious Jews who had not trusted Christ must plead guilty. Paul, the prosecuting attorney, has proven that the Jews who have a special relationship to God are guilty, just like the Gentiles.

OK, so here's the final verse. So this verse, let me just read it first. For the name of God is blaspheming among the Gentiles because of you, just as it is written. And Jim points out that's in Isaiah. So this verse is the result in our if-then statement of the Jews' walk and talk. That's the end statement. So Luis brings us across.

He uses the word revile. The name of God's been reviled. And it's the same word as blaspheme. Actually, that word is not translated. It's just brought over from the Greek. Blasphemeo is the same word as blaspheme, to speak contemptuously of God. And then here's a verse that just, I thought it was a dynamite verse.

This just nails the Jewish Israel nation to the wall. So here's an Ezekiel. So Ezekiel is pointing out that when they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my... God's speaking through Ezekiel here. They profaned my holy name because it was said of them. So this is what the people said of the Jews that came. These are the people of the Lord, yet they have come out of his land. They realized they left their land of Israel. But I have concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel has profaned among the nation where they went." So their actions spoke so much louder than their words that it profaned God's name. Pretty amazing. Okay, so now, final thought here.

So, you know, this is a section we're going through, we're going to move on, and Mike's going to cover Another part next week, but let's just say a big picture here the Jews believed They believe they had three things going for them. They thought they had three things that kind of guaranteed them They got in God's favor They were given the law of Moses directly They had been circumcised They were talking about the women Society that's it. Okay. They were descendants of Abraham. So those three things they said boy we got these three things and God can't be angry. We've got those three things. We're good.

But Paul is going to show them that the law cannot save them. Circumcision cannot save them. That's next week. That's for Mike to do. And then we're going to eventually see that being Abraham's descendants cannot save them. So that's where we're headed. Hopefully this has been instructive. So let's pray. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you for your your thoroughness in going through and showing us that all men stand condemned before you, no matter who they are, what they think they have gained. They have to agree that you are a righteous judge and you judge righteously, but you also are a loving God and you provided through your son salvation for all those who believe. We ask it in his name. Amen.